RRHS girls beat Clovis, make 'The Pit'

By Eric Maddy
The SCORE

It  may have been “only” the first round of the New Mexico girl’s state basketball tournament to some people, but don’t tell Rio Rancho head coach Bob McIntyre that.

About 10 minutes after his team rallied to defeat Clovis 39-30 Friday night, the veteran coach had a catch in his throat and was on the verge of a few tears after the hard-fought, emotional home victory meant his team would get a chance to play at UNM Arena on Tuesday.

“Our program has been to The Pit for a number of years, and I had the good fortune of being there he last four or five at Moriarty. I kind of got used to it,” he said. “Having not gone last year, I really wanted to take that step down The Pit.

“I told the team the whole thing is about opportunity, and the opportunity here was for the majority of our kids for the first time to be able to experience The Pit and be able to walk down that ramp. I know what it was like the first time for me. It’s special.”

That special trip will happen Tuesday at 1:15 p.m. when the Rams, 21-7, play Alamogordo, which eliminated Rio Grande 58-44. For a while it appeared any trip might be in jeopardy after Clovis rallied from an early 10-point deficit to take as much as a three-point the lead in the third quarter, but the third meeting between the two teams this season turned out to be just as charming for Rio Rancho as the earlier contests.

Tied 25-25 entering the final period, the Rams scored the first six points of the quarter as part of a 9-2 spurt to put the game away. Ashley Rhodes had two baskets, Megan Muniz made the Rams’ only three-pointer of the night and Tracy Fosterling opened the run with a rebound basket 15 seconds into the quarter as Rio Rancho pulled away.

“All three games with were like that with these guy,” McIntyre said. “All three games could have gone the other way – a call here, a shot there. It says a lot about our kids.

“It really is a tale of both programs this year. We won virtually every close game, and as happy as I am for our kids I feel for he Clovis kids. They had Mayfield down 24 and got beat on a last-second shot. They got beat here in our tournament by Sandia by a last-second shot.  Anyone who knows (Clovis coach) Miles Watters knows he positioned his team over and over and over again. For whatever reason, they never got over the hump. “

Watters, who coached Clayton to 10 Class AA titles in 12 years (including a national record eight in a row) before moving to Clovis, agreed with McIntyre’s assessment. Clovis, 12-17, lost four games by one point this season and eight games by five points or less. And Watters said Friday’s finish was typical of what he called “Murphy’s Season,” a takeoff on Murphy’s Law (“Anything that can go wrong will.”)

“We had them on the ropes there, and we had a couple of shots that didn’t fall,” Watters said. “Rhodes is just such a presence in there you’re always looking over your shoulder instead of attacking the basket.

“A few breaks right here, too – I thought we had a couple of tough calls that could have gone either way but unfortunately they went against us. That’s part of basketball. That’s just the way our year has gone. I wouldn’t have expected anything less. We were hoping one of these nights that the ball would fall and we would get a call here and there, but it just didn’t happen.”

Clovis had been in the state title game three of the past four years, losing twice to Mayfield and beating the Lady Trojans in 2005 for Watters’ 11th state title. Ironically, Mayfield was also knocked out by Sandia 41-35 on Friday, as was perennial power and 2006 champion Gallup, which despite being down several players due to suspension and being a No. 16 seed fell at No. 1 La Cueva 41-39.

“Tonight’s opponent was like the opponent La Cueva had,” McIntyre said. “Gallup, Clovis, Mayfield, Sandia, La Cueva, and you hope Rio Rancho: You’re going to play a program, and hey are not going to go away easy. Tonight we had to earn it, and I new we would have to.

“It’s just now sinking in that there aren’t many seasons where you beat Gallup three times and Clovis three times like we did this year. I have a tremendous amount of respect for both those coaches, so personally that feels good. I’m happy for our kids because the game is for them.  They really win and lose games, and they’ve won more than they’ve lost. That’s good news."

After building a 10-point lead in the first quarter, Rio Rancho led only 20-17 at halftime. Jasmine McDonaldld scored all six Clovis’ first-quarter points: an inside basket which tied the game 2-2, and the last four points of the period which narrowed the margin to 12-6. Her baskets with 27.2 and 3.6 seconds left, respectively, cut into Rio Rancho’s double-digit advantage built largely on six points by Courtney Solwick in the opening period.

Rio Rancho built up an eight-point lead early in the second quarter, Clovis but went on a 9-2 run capped by a three-pointer by Jennifer Vaca to narrow the gap to one point. It was 18-17 when Solwick hit a short jumper with 1:18 left in the half, the last score by either team before intermission.

Ashlynn Steffensen basket off a Rio Rancho steal gave the Rams a five-point lead to open the third quarter, but an 8-0 Clovis rally gave the Wildcats their three-point advantage with 3:51 left in the period. From there, the visitors went scoreless for almost eight minutes while Rio Rancho took control.

“I thought we had a great game plan – we ran a little diamond-and-one and had Muniz frustrated,” Watters said. “She got a few looks at the end when we had to go man-to-man.

“You’ve got to give them credit. They forced us into numerous turnovers (28 unofficially).
To have a shot at it, you can’t have that many turnovers.

“We were playing a little bit too fast early, but that’s been our storyline. We just throw it all over the gym. We’re down to our fourth guard right now. We’ve had a lot of really tough breaks this year.

“We were making terrible reads at first and forcing it too much. I thought maybe we were going to be loose coming into this, but we weren’t.  Our guards were uptight. They run a big zone out there.

“But I was really pleased with the kids and the effort. I thought we left it all on the court. “

McIntyre agreed with his counterpart’s assessment.

“I thought a lot of the mistakes we made, like a lot of their mistakes, were self-inflicted – walks, just not taking care of the ball. He did a great job of getting the ball out of Megan’s hands and lately Megan’s had the ball in her hand 90 percent of the time.  It’s tough for Meagan in those situations, but she has been that way all year long. That’s why she’s the kind of player she is.

“You can put kids in a diamond-and-one, or you can really play a diamond-and-one. We saw a heck of a defense. For us to see probably the best diamond-and-one that we’re going to see and still win the game is a credit to our kids. “

McIntyre said he had taken the unusual step, for him at least, to look at film of Alamogordo and Rio Grande in preparation for Tuesday’s game.

“Right in my pocket, right before the game, I watched some tape on Alamogordo,” he said. “It’s very unlike me to do that because you could put it right back in the mail the next day and send it back to the people who sent t to you. But we had to do it, because the turnaround is Tuesday.

’I told our kids. ’I’ve never looked ahead.  And I’m not looking ahead, I’m looking forward.  I wanted so desperately for these kids to experience The Pit and have a chance o go down there.”

McIntyre said he had no special words before the decisive fourth quarter and credited his staff (Breyana Harris, Patrick Puentes and Dominic Carrera) for their input.

“We’ve been together as a staff, really tight this year with a lot of shared responsibility,” he said. “It’s not about me. It’s probably more things my staff is saying to the kids, and the kids relay it to each other. It’s a nice win. It’s nice to be going back to the Pit.”

Where one can only imagine how emotional he’ll be if the Rams can win their first state title.